Instagram story viewer> @opencanvasproject> Posts

Open Canvas Project

@opencanvasproject

85

followers

265

following

OPEN NOW:
"Gather" 25 yr retrospective exhibition - Sept. 2-27, Papermill Gallery, Toronto. Public Reception: Saturday Sept. 26 1-4pm. Free!!

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

Open Canvas Project transforms painting into a shared public experience.

A canvas, paint, and brushes are placed in a public or communal setting. People are invited to contribute freely. Some stop for a few seconds. Others remain longer. Each participant adds something to what was already there and leaves something for the next person.

The resulting painting is more than a finished image. It is a record of participation, chance encounters, individual gestures, and collective decision-making.

Open Canvas creates accessible opportunities for people to make art together—and to reconsider who art is for, where it can happen, and who gets to participate.

#opencanvasproject #participatoryart #cocreation #socialpractice #communityart by @opencanvasproject

3

0

3 months ago

HOW OPEN CANVAS PROJECT WORKS

A canvas is installed in a public, educational, cultural, or community setting.
Paint, brushes, and simple instructions are provided.
People are invited to contribute—no previous art experience is necessary.
The painting changes continuously as each participant responds to what is already there.
The completed work is documented and becomes part of the Open Canvas archive.
Every session is different because every place, group, and sequence of participation is different.
The process can take the form of a spontaneous public intervention, a structured workshop, an event activation, or a longer community collaboration.

Swipe to see the process.

Location: Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto (City Hall)
Date: 2007
Partner: #manifestofestival

#opencanvasproject #howitworks #participatoryart #cocreation #communityengagement taken in Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto by @opencanvasproject

5

0

3 months ago

Open Canvas Project can be adapted to many different settings, communities, and forms of collaboration.

WAYS TO WORK WITH US:
— Public interventions
— Festivals and event activations
— Museum and gallery programming
— School and youth workshops
— Community engagement projects
— Team-building and private events
— Co-created murals and public artworks
— Exhibitions and archive presentations

Each project is developed in response to its participants, location, scale, and purpose. Sessions can be informal and spontaneous or carefully structured as part of a larger educational, cultural, or community initiative.
We welcome conversations with schools, museums, municipalities, festivals, community organizations, businesses, property owners, funders, and sponsors.

For partnership and project inquiries, contact:
opencanvasproject@gmail.com

#opencanvasproject #communityengagement #eventactivation #artseducation #publicart #teambuilding by @opencanvasproject

8

0

3 months ago

ZINE GIVEAWAY TOMORROW

The first 25 guests at the Open Canvas Project: GATHER reception will receive a free copy of the new OCP zine.

Each copy has a unique cover made from a section of the Crazy As A Loon painting.

Saturday, September 26
1–4 PM
Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills
67 Pottery Road, Toronto
Free admission

25 copies.
25 unique covers.
One free copy per group/family.

ARRIVE EARLY.

Additional copies will also be available on a PWYC (pay what you can) basis.

#opencanvasproject by @opencanvasproject

9

2

4 days ago

SUPPORTING THE NEXT CHAPTER

As we get ready to welcome everyone to Open Canvas Project: GATHER this Saturday, we want to give a huge shout-out to Above Ground Art Supplies for sponsoring the paint and canvas used in this summer’s new Open Canvas activations.

Those materials became the surfaces and colours that participants worked with at Spadina Museum and Todmorden Mills, helping create the two newest paintings in the Open Canvas archive.

We’re also grateful for support from the Ontario Arts Council Exhibition Assistance Program, which helped make it possible to bring works from the 25-year Open Canvas archive back into public view.

PUBLIC RECEPTION
Saturday, September 26
1–4 PM
Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills
67 Pottery Road, Toronto
Free admission

The exhibition continues through September 27.

Thank you Above Ground Art Supplies and the Ontario Arts Council for helping make this exhibition possible.

NO RULES.
GRAB A BRUSH.
LEAVE YOUR MARK.

#opencanvasproject #abovegroundartsupplies #ontarioartscouncil #participatoryart #torontoexhibition by @opencanvasproject

16

0

5 days ago

A CLOSER LOOK AT CRAZY AS A LOON

Details from one of the largest and most densely layered works in the Open Canvas archive.

Created during a private Open Canvas session with invited Toronto artists, the painting has accumulated a kind of mythology within the project — not only because of its scale, but because of the people, music, and creative community surrounding it.

This Reel moves quickly across the surface, but the full painting is on view now in Open Canvas Project: GATHER at Papermill Gallery.

And this Saturday is the best time to see it.

PUBLIC RECEPTION
Saturday, September 26
1–4 PM
Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills
67 Pottery Road, Toronto
Free admission

There is more to come from this painting later this week.

NO RULES.
LEAVE YOUR MARK.

#opencanvasproject #torontobiennalofart #torontoart #artarchive #torontoexhibition by @opencanvasproject

5

0

7 days ago

OPEN CANVAS + RHYTHMICRU

Open Canvas Project developed alongside Rhythmicru, a Toronto hip-hop music and arts collective whose members were constantly moving between recording, visual art, live events, parties, and collaborative projects.

In that environment, painting was never really separate from music or performance. Open Canvas stations appeared at events, artists painted alongside DJs and musicians, and participation became part of the experience.

This clip comes from the Rhythmicru video for Crazy As A Loon by Cale Sampson and D-Ray The Kid, filmed and edited by Jay Fox on Super 8 film during a private Open Canvas session with invited Toronto artists.

That mix of music, visual art, shared space, friendship, and spontaneous collaboration helped shape what Open Canvas became before the project moved outward into streets, festivals, schools, museums, and public spaces.

Watch the full video on Vimeo:
https://vimeo.com/217091311

NO RULES.
LEAVE YOUR MARK.

#opencanvasproject #rhythmicru #torontohiphop #collaborativeart #participatoryart by @opencanvasproject

7

1

14 days ago

A R C H I V E

Created during the 2006 Open Canvas sessions at the Distillery District in Toronto.

Somedays are a Purple Aftro
Distillery District, Toronto
2006
OCP #098
30 × 40 in.
Acrylic and collage on stretched canvas.

#opencanvasproject #participatorypublicart #socialpractice #contemporarypainting by @opencanvasproject

4

0

15 days ago

CAMPER CHAOS

This Open Canvas painting was created at Todmorden Mills with young campers who gathered around the canvas, took turns, and left their marks.

The title — Camper Chaos — was chosen by the children.

The session was part of our summer partnership with Toronto History Museums, developed in response to the Gather theme. That call helped rekindle Open Canvas Project after many years of the archive being largely in storage, bringing the project back into public life through new community-based activations.

Camper Chaos is now on exhibition in Open Canvas Project: GATHER at Papermill Gallery, alongside selected works from the 25-year archive and new paintings created this summer at Toronto History Museums sites.

Todmorden Mills is a place worth discovering — with a wildflower preserve, theatre, gallery, and historic grounds tucked into the city.

Open Canvas Project: GATHER
September 2–27, 2026
Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills
Gallery hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 AM–4 PM
Admission is free.

NO RULES.
LEAVE YOUR MARK.

#opencanvasproject #todmordenmills #torontohistorymuseums #participatoryart #torontoexhibition taken in Todmorden Mills by @opencanvasproject

9

3

16 days ago

A GLIMPSE OF THE WALL

Preparing for GATHER meant digging back through the archive and seeing them again one by one. But the real impact comes in the gallery.

All of the Distillery Residency paintings are now installed salon-style across a 14-foot-tall by 45-foot-wide wall at Papermill Gallery. Seen together, they create an overwhelming field of colour, marks, images, words, and collective energy.

This Reel is only a glimpse.

To experience the scale of the archive, you have to walk into the space.

Open Canvas Project: GATHER
September 2–27, 2026
Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills
Toronto History Museums

Gallery hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 AM–4 PM
Admission is free.

NO RULES.
LEAVE YOUR MARK.

#opencanvasproject
#torontoart #artinstallation #galleryexhibition #participatoryart by @opencanvasproject

9

0

24 days ago

by @opencanvasproject

27

1

a month ago

STORED. COVERED. WAITING.
For more than 15 years, the Open Canvas Project archive has been kept in storage.
Behind tarps, sheets, stacks, frames, dust, and garage walls are paintings made by hundreds of participants — works created through public interventions, community gatherings, music and arts events, schools, festivals, and shared moments of spontaneous creative expression.
This week, the archive comes back into view.

Install begins in two days.
The exhibition opens to the public in three.

Open Canvas Project: GATHER
September 2–27, 2026
Papermill Gallery, Todmorden Mills
Toronto History Museums

The exhibition brings together selected paintings and documentation from the 25-year archive alongside new works created this summer at Spadina Museum and Todmorden Mills.

Gallery hours: Wednesday–Sunday, 11 AM–4 PM
Admission is free.
NO RULES.
LEAVE YOUR MARK.
#opencanvasproject #artarchive #participatoryart #todmordenmills #torontoexhibition by @opencanvasproject

9

1

a month ago